Page 387 - sons-and-lovers

was now about twenty-three years old, and, though still vir-
gin, the sex instinct that Miriam had over-refined for so long
now grew particularly strong. Often, as he talked to Clara
Dawes, came that thickening and quickening of his blood,
that peculiar concentration in the breast, as if something
were alive there, a new self or a new centre of consciousness,
warning him that sooner or later he would have to ask one
woman or another. But he belonged to Miriam. Of that she
was so fixedly sure that he allowed her right.

Sons and Lovers